Atonement Theory and the History of Theology

I have been reading an incredibly interesting book by Mark-Robin Hoogland titled God, Passion and Power: Thomas Aquinas on Christ Crucified and the Almightiness of God.  As the title implies, he explores the idea of divine power from the perspective of the cross (or through the event of the cross).  In any case, he makes a helpful point about atonement theory that I wanted to take note of. 

It is Anslem who suggests  the satisfaction theory of atonement, and Aquinas who follows him to some extent (though he places less emphasis on satisfaction).  Prior to Anselm, the dominant theological paradigm was one of casus diaboli.  Hoogland describes it as thus: "Due to the sin of the first human beings the devil was entitled to keep the human race ensnared.  Deliverance could only come to pass, if the devil would unjustly entrap someone, namely a person without sin.  By laying violent hands on Christ - the devil was deceived, since Christ looked like any other, sinful, human being, but was not - the devil lost his previous right." (30)  Origen, Augustine, and Gregory the Great all subscribed to this view.  Anselm moves to the satisfaction theory perhaps because of his context, and "over the years there has been much critique on Anselm's satisfaction theory (or on the commentators' understanding of it), for instance that God looks here more like an 11th century prince concerned about his honour than like the God of Israel." (31) 

I found this interesting in relation to an essay I just read by Paul Helm who tried to put Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, and Calvin in the same major tradition (in an attempt to exclude others with whom he disagrees).  He referred to this group as the "A team".  Granted, the essay was on predestination, but atonement is closely related (especially if one is going to use Romans and Ephesians as the main texts of support).  Here is an example of a major difference in what atonement means, thus leading to a difference in what it means to be predestined for salvation.   Hoogland is writing as a Catholic, so he does not follow the topic through the reformation, but it seems clear that Calvin especially picked up on Anselm's theory of atonement.